Terry began his career in 1976 at Campbell Mithun, the Twin Cities largest advertising agency. As an account management trainee, he was assigned advertising duties for Litton Microwave Cooking Products and West Bend Appliances.

A year later he joined Chuck Ruhr Advertising to work on the agency’s flagship account, Perkins Restaurants. He was soon made account group director of the agency’s retail clients, which included companies like Target, Gabberts, Regis Salons and Brown Photo (now Ritz Cameras). In 1983, at the ripe old age of 30, he was made Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and became the agency’s representative on the 4A’s Board of Governors. In his tenure at Chuck Ruhr Advertising, he helped the agency grow from 13 employees and $6 million in billings to 64 employees and $32 million in billings. His awards during that time included an Effie and 4 Clios.

In 1985, Terry joined Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt as Senior Vice President, Management Supervisor. The agency, with $2.4 billion in billings, 4,500 employees and offices in 64 countries, provided Terry with much greater challenges. He headed up a group that managed 21 different accounts, with a primary focus in retail. They included, Valvoline Instant Oil Change, Regis Salons, KFC and Pizza Hut. He was made chairman of Bozell’s national new business committee and headed up the 10-office account team that worked on The People’s Republic of China. His awards during his tenure included a Gold Effie and 2 Lions from The Cannes Film Festival.

Terry left Bozell Worldwide in 1993 and founded Gruggen Buckley. The focus of the company was to create collateral materials for retail clients…..something ad agencies were not very good at. Focusing on the benefits of speed and low cost, he was able to quickly add blue chip clients to the Gruggen Buckley roster. Within the first 18 months, clients like AT&T, Target and Valvoline had all come on board.

Two events would change the focus of the company. In 2000, Gruggen Buckley had custom software written that enabled them to turn data into computer-automated page layouts for pre-press. This proprietary software soon received a federal trademark and is now known as SpeedVersion®.

In 2001, AT&T Wireless asked Gruggen Buckley to review their $72 million print production budget and recommend cost saving measures. Terry and his staff were able to cut $17 million dollars in expenditures from the existing budget with an actual 10% increase in the volume produced. AT&T Wireless responded by consolidating their $55 million national print expenditures with Gruggen Buckley. And so began the Gruggen Buckley’s focus on high volume, print production management for Fortune 500 companies.

All of that takes us to where Terry is today. As President and CEO, he has Gruggen Buckley highly focused in a very specialized niche. And if you want to see just how focused he really is, pick up the phone and call him. He’s at his desk by 6 a.m. every day.

In his spare time, Terry regularly drains the battery on his Kindle, works on advancing his culinary skills and contributes daily to the body count in New Mombasa.